HBS Student Club Spotlight: Social Enterprise Club

This year, we will be highlighting the work of social enterprise related student clubs at HBS. In this blog, hear from 2018-19 Social Enterprise Club co-presidents: Andrea Frederick, Lily Fu, and Sara Marcus (all HBS ’19).

What are the mission and activities of your club?

The mission of the Social Enterprise Club is to inspire, educate, and connect leaders who will create social change in the world. Our activities are threefold:

Education: Through speaker panels, fireside chats withsocial impact leaders and professors, and student-led discussions, we help our members learn about the social impact space.

Career: Through job postings, company treks, and cross-student body connections, we help our members find the best career opportunities for them.

Community: Through our retreat, small group dinners, and other social events, we build and sustain a community of likeminded people interested in social impact.

What are your backgrounds, and why did you decide to take leadership roles?

Lily: Before HBS, I was a Consultant at the Bridgespan Group, a strategy consulting firm for nonprofits. I had also worked in investment management at Goldman Sachs and in philanthropy at the Rockefeller Foundation. I came to HBS focused on the intersection of health care and social impact, and found a supportive community and home within the Social Enterprise Club. As co-president, I hope to give back to the community and help it continue to thrive.

Sara: I worked in management consulting and then in corporate strategy for a healthy food and beverage company focused on social responsibility. I came to HBS to transition into more direct social impact work, so the Social Enterprise Club community has been incredibly valuable to help me get exposure to different areas of social enterprise and meet students with similar interests. As a club leader, I hope to help foster that experience for other HBS students.

Andrea: Before HBS, I worked at Marriott International in customer and digital analytics. Outside of work, I’ve served on the board of a nonprofit focused on economic empowerment and have volunteered for several education organizations. I’m passionate about education and helping social enterprises realize the potential of using data to optimize programs. As co-president of SEC, I’m excited to help shape a community of people who are focused on having a positive impact on society.

What do you want to accomplish this year?

We want to accomplish a lot this year, both club-wide and through our collection of topic-specific interest groups (For-profit Social Enterprise, International Development, Effective Giving, Social Entrepreneurship, Living the Mission, and Education). Top of mind for us is to continue to build the SEC community through our fall retreat, small group dinners, happy hours, and social events. We also aim to broaden our reach through bringing prominent speakers to campus, collaborating more closely with Harvard Kennedy School, and hosting engaging events like fireside chats and lunch and learns. Another big item on our agenda is to better connect students with the vast social enterprise alumni network, to facilitate mentorship and sharing of career advice. Overall, we aim to bring social impact more to the forefront of people’s minds at HBS.

How do you hope this club will add to the HBS experience and to the broader community?

HBS’s mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. The school clearly recognizes that business and social issues are highly intertwined, but sometimes in the classroom it can feel like we talk about each of them in a vacuum. The Social Enterprise Club is here to help bridge that gap and enable students to explore ways in which business can be leveraged for social good, both within the social/public sector and outside of it. We hope that this will have an impact not only on the students of HBS, but on all of the communities that they are a part of after they graduate.